It was torture Simone for much of the time. Hopes would rise and then be dashed again each time he gave back a service break in the 3rd set. I was dry mouthed and shaking by the end. But what an end - made it all worthwhile!

Agreed Ruthie-I was an absolute mess by the end of it.I'm pretty sure I stopped breathing during some bits of that match,and my emotions were all over the place.In fact,when he won,I was nearly too stunned to be happy about it-I almost couldn't believe he'd managed to do it after all that!But oh,when I saw him fling his racquet into the crowd,and the camera showed his box applauding him,and it sunk in that he'd won it (and was now at no. 2!!)-ohh,it made up for all of the rest of it

I know, I watched it all. Ferrer was a spent force in the tie-break, whilst Andy seized the moment and just kept on going ...

I have recorded the whole match for my Murray collection, but doubt I will watch the whole thing again, far too stressful even knowing the outcome...!!! However the last 10 points when he decided he had tortured us all enough, and it was time he won is great. He was back to his brutal best.

Btw - my response to you was what passes for a joke in my neck of the woods, I wasn't intending to be ill mannered :-).

I wasn't able to watch it live as it was on in the middle of the night for me and I had to be functional the next day! I don't know how any Andy fans coped watching that match live - it would have been torturous! I was nervous as hell watching it even though I knew he won - I am sure I would have had to walk away for a breather multiple times had I been able to watch it live.

It's the first time since the Olympic final that I've had the shakes after an Andy win. The USO final doesn't count because I just knew he was going to win that match.

My sister came in to me (I watched the match in my room, my sister volunteered to cook our evening meal and did the prep for it while the match was on) at one point to find out what I was yelling at the crowd for. She took one look at my face and left the room again!

I wouldn't have been so anxious if the match had been over five sets, Andy tends to find a way over Ferrer in the majors, excepy on clay of course, but I hope that changes soon. Then again, if that match had been best of five on Sunday it might just have killed Ferrer. I've never, ever seen him cramp before.

I have recorded the whole match for my Murray collection, but doubt I will watch the whole thing again, far too stressful even knowing the outcome...!!! However the last 10 points when he decided he had tortured us all enough, and it was time he won is great. He was back to his brutal best.

Btw - my response to you was what passes for a joke in my neck of the woods, I wasn't intending to be ill mannered :-).

No worries - I didn't take any offence at what you said because I realised you were being jokey.

It's the first time since the Olympic final that I've had the shakes after an Andy win. The USO final doesn't count because I just knew he was going to win that match.

My sister came in to me (I watched the match in my room, my sister volunteered to cook our evening meal and did the prep for it while the match was on) at one point to find out what I was yelling at the crowd for. She took one look at my face and left the room again!

I wouldn't have been so anxious if the match had been over five sets, Andy tends to find a way over Ferrer in the majors, excepy on clay of course, but I hope that changes soon. Then again, if that match had been best of five on Sunday it might just have killed Ferrer. I've never, ever seen him cramp before.

I recovered fairly quickly - although I think it would have been different if Andy had lost. It took me two days though to recover from the USO final because, oh me of little faith, I thought Djokovic was going to win after he took the 3rd set, and I really didn't care to think how Andy would react if he lost a 5th GS final after being two sets up. I loved the way he said that when he went for his toilet break he began talking out loud to himself and ended up almost shouting, so determined was he that he was not going to let this match slip away from him. I think he realised that make or break time had finally arrived.

Andy really will have to learn to get rid of these slow starts though - and he can do it - because he does make life difficult for himself. That match could have been over in two with both players spared the misery of grinding things out in those awful conditions. I'm wondering though if Ferrer isn't starting to feel his age. He's played a lot of tennis this year, so it might be of some advantage if he cut the number of tournaments down, because, apart from Miami, he's been a bit more irritable of late, which is not like him.

Yes Ruthie......it was sooo tight, but as you say, it's that ability to win the big points that ultimately makes the difference! Yes, either of them could have won, but the fact is, Andy refused to give up and I think that was the gutsiest I have 'ever' seen anyone play! To say that Ferrer 'should' have won, belittles Andy's win and I think he deserves better from his fans!

At the end of the day the only stat that matters is who won the last point. In this game in was Andy.

It was horrible to watch live. Really horrible. But it ended well! Do you think Djokovic fans go through this sort of thing??

WTF final last year was pretty bad for Nole fans I would assume. That match also came down to sheer guts and desire but the quality wasn’t there and of course, the conditions weren’t nearly as brutal as Miami. But the match was topsy turvy from the get go.

But wait, on a second thought, it was probably Federer fans who went through hell that night, because he was constantly giving them hope or the illusion as if he’s going to win the match by leading first in both sets but only to lose in the end.

Another thing I wanted to mention is that, I was more sure that the ball was in than out. I had a few reasons going on before the Hawkeye was reeling in on the call. Neither the linesperson or the umpire called the ball out. And Ferrer was far too desperate at the point – but more importantly, Ferrer was already off balance and was going to lose the point anyway. I am glad it caught the end of line but I thought, given the circumstances, Ferrer was going to lose the point anyway even if hadn’t called it. What was amazing is what happened after that. Ferrer got too discouraged and Andy, on the other hand, felt as if he was given a second chance. And from that point on, while one collapsed both mentally and physically; the other left no doubt as to who was the superior player – both mentally and physically and not to mention, game-wise as well.

- Do notice that Murray committed just three unforced errors after the seventh game (in the final set). In crunch time, Murray found ways to clean up his game

- I can’t get over how great his forehand fared in that (third) set. Think about it: Murray avoided mistakes on 95% of his forehand attempts in a deciding set of a Masters 1000 final, just as the consequences of playing a noon final in Miami started to take a toll on his body (Ferrer ended up cramping later, something I hadn’t seen before).

- Andy Murray committed zero unforced errors in the four return games in which he broke serve … as well as in the tiebreaker. That’s pretty astonishing.

- Having said all of that, I can’t help but marvel at Murray’s Efficiency Ratings. 93% off both wings is phenomenal for such a scrappy, nervy match. No wonder the man from Dunblane has made three straight Grand Slam finals and will be the World No. 2 tomorrow.

It was an interesting read, I’ll give him that but at the end of the day, it doesn’t really help – these stats. Andy had no reason to fall 0-5 behind in the first set. There’s a slow start and there’s a slow start. Knowing fully well, or so I hope, Andy should been very much in to the match from the start and at least, if nothing else, he should have been able to hold his serve and perhaps take it to 1st set TB. The 2nd set, while it was decent and much better than the 1st set, he still got broken. And the 3rd set, I don’t recall watching anything like this before. But let’s cut some slack and assume they were both very nervous especially in the 3rd set, (though I don’t see why Andy should be so nervous, but perhaps his first Masters final after a long time made him all jittery), but given that Andy has a much better 1st serve than Ferrer, he should have not gotten broken so many times.

That was unforgiveable – especially when he got broken again one last time at 5-4 when he was supposed to close out the match. Still, I was ready to forget about the 1st set if the 3rd set wasn’t so crappy where he barely managed to win. He could have won in 2 tight sets and I am sure the overall stats would have looked better for him too. But more importantly, who looks into so much detail when people are already so exhausted? Glad though that this is now in the past and the result is in our favour. All hell would have broken loose on this forum had Andy lost and not only here but everywhere. I’ve already read some nasty articles written by Brit journalists about this match, so I am sure it was going to be a hellish experience for those who truly and genuinely support Andy through thick and thin.

It was an interesting read, I’ll give him that but at the end of the day, it doesn’t really help – these stats. Andy had no reason to fall behind 0-5 in the first set. There’s a slow start and there’s a slow start. Knowing fully well, or so I hope, Andy should been very much in to the match from the start and at least, if nothing else, he should have been able to hold his serve and perhaps take it to 1st TB. The 2nd set, while it was decent and much better than the 1st set, he still got broken. And the 3rd set, I don’t recall watching anything like this before. But let’s cut some slack and assume they were both very nervous especially in the 3rd set, (though I don’t see why Andy should be so nervous, but perhaps his first Masters final after a long time made him all jittery), but given that Andy has a much better 1st serve than Ferrer, he should have not gotten broken so many times.

That was unforgiveable – especially when he got broken again one last time at 5-4 when he was supposed to close out the match. Still, I was ready to forget about the 1st set if the 3rd set wasn’t so crappy where he barely managed to win. He could have won in 2 tight sets and I am sure the overall stats would have looked better for him too. But more importantly, who looks into so much detail when people are already so exhausted? Glad though that this is now in the past and the result is in our favour. All hell would have broken loose on this forum had Andy lost and not only here but everywhere. I’ve already read some nasty articles written by Brit journalists about this match, so I am sure it was going to be a hellish experience for those who truly and genuinely support Andy through thick and thin.